


Ajax Alone

by MyFutureGirl



Series: The Wandering Eye Episode II: Bounty on Batuu [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, One Shot, Prison, Trandoshans (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26726560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyFutureGirl/pseuds/MyFutureGirl
Summary: Ajax is a fugitive of the law running away from prison and trapped on the remote planet of Batuu. With his only mentor and partner dead, Ajax is forced to try and find a way to the Rebellion on his own with very little information to guide him. Wandering the empty streets alone, will Ajax be able to find the help he so desperately needs, or will he succumb to his own darkness?
Series: The Wandering Eye Episode II: Bounty on Batuu [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918912
Kudos: 1





	Ajax Alone

**Author's Note:**

> This is a lot angstier than I expected but it fits. I don't know if anyone actually cares about Ajax, but I surprisingly found myself getting attached to him so I had to write this a bit of character development.

Ajax never wanted trouble, but he somehow felt like it always found him. Maybe if he was less clumsy he wouldn't always be stumbling into trouble. Or if he was less trusting and naïve he wouldn't always be shaking hands with trouble. Or maybe he was just a magnet. A gravity well for all the trouble in the galaxy to fall into. Either way, Ajax felt cursed. Like no matter what he did, he would always be doomed to fall right back into trouble's rough and greedy and hands. He shivered in the night and wrapped his arms around himself. This planet was mostly a desert, but it felt so cold at night. He stalked the empty allies, looking for a blue crate with a shooting star on it. That was all he was given as a lead.

  
Ajax froze as he saw two storm troopers walk by. He ducked behind a stinking dumpster and waited for them to pass. His stomach growled loudly and he cringed. He covered his eyes and trembled as he thought surely the storm troopers had heard his stomach. After a moment of silence, he slowly parted his fingers so he could peek through. The storm troopers were gone. He was safe. For now, at least.

  
Ajax shivered violently as a cold breeze blew right through his prison uniform. He was on the run, though it felt like he was always running. He ran away from home, ran away from his gang, and now prison. Maybe he should have been worried that he was only running straight back into trouble, but he ignored those thoughts. _No, I finally have a chance._ Ajax thought to himself as he wrapped his arms around his legs to stop them from trembling. _I'm going to be saved this time! I'll break the curse! I'll break the curse!_

  
Prison wasn't kind to Ajax. His gang set him up and painted him as a snitch. For once in his life, when Ajax said he was completely innocent, he was actually telling the truth. But the Empire didn't believe him, and neither did the other inmates. Ajax was thinking of ending it all when one guy approached him. He had never even seen him before, but he walked right up to the table empty table Ajax was sitting at and said "Are you Ajax?"

  
Ajax blinked, then set his jaw. "Who's asking?" he sneered. Too many times before have men asked him that question just to make sure they were beating up the right guy.  
"Don't get so defensive, buddy. I just wanted to congratulate you for being the champion of the Naboo Speeder Bike Racing Grand Prix." the man said as he held his hands up in surrender.

  
Ajax's jaw dropped. "You, y-you know about me?" he stammered, astonished that this stranger had known such a thing about him. No one here knew who he was other than as a "snitch."

  
"I was there. Pit crew for Tenzin Onyo. I like your style kid. You know how to get things done." the stranger said earnestly. Ajax smiled hesitantly. Was his luck finally turning around?

  
That was a long time ago. It took a while for the stranger, he insisted on being called "Chief," to befriend Ajax, and then longer still to trust him with his plan. His plan to break out of prison and run off to join the Rebellion. Ajax couldn't have said "yes" faster, but now he couldn't help wonder if he should have just said, "Hell no!" Chief was dead. He died shortly after they escaped the prison. Now Ajax was alone. Alone, frightened, hungry, and cold. And all for what?

  
Ajax pulled the tiny little datastick out of his pocket and glared at it in the moonlight. Chief had given it to him right before he died. He said it was important that it got to the Rebellion and told Ajax to never let it go. If he were to get captured, destroy it. If it fell into the wrong hands, get it back and kill whoever took it. "This information is more important than any of us." Chief said with his dying breath. Ajax didn't even know what the information was, but he trusted Chief, so that counted for something, right?

  
Ajax put the datastick away and stood up. The allies funneled all of the cold air right to Ajax and he hated it. He was a reptile! He wasn't supposed to be cold! Why do deserts get so damn cold at night? Ajax grunted and walked down the ally into a new one. He shivered and huffed in frustration, then something across the way caught his eye. Something bellowed in the breeze just ahead of him. Ajax looked around him to make sure the coast was clear, then scampered over to the bellowing fabric. In the dim moonlight, all he could see was that it was dark. He grabbed the fabric and sighed in relief. It was the softest fabric he had felt in months. He rubbed it against his face and sighed again as he felt its warmth. He freed the fabric from the crate it was caught around and nearly squealed in delight when he realized it was a cloak. He quickly threw it on and wrapped his arms around himself as he felt instantly warmer. Ajax pulled the hood over his head and wrapped his arms around himself as he indulged in the warmth.

  
Maybe his luck was turning around, but Ajax was too afraid to admit it. He was afraid that if he said it out loud, it would stop being true. Instead, Ajax trudged forward through the allies once again. As he looked for the crate, he quickly grew frustrated. There were so many crates, of every shape and color! How was he supposed to find this blue crate? And what was the "shooting star" even supposed to look like? He grumbled as he checked every crate in every alley he could find. He was beginning to wonder if the crate even existed when he finally saw it across the road. In the moonlight, he could see a dirty, blue crate with a white stripe across it. Ajax, checked the street for storm troopers, then quickly darted across. He immediately crouched down before the crate and brushed off some of the dirt that had gathered on the top. Sure enough, there was a logo of a shooting star streaking above a horizon line, with the text "Starunner Deliveries" written below it. 

  
Ajax sighed with relief and tried to open the crate, but it was locked shut. He tried to force it open, then sighed and gave up. "Carapast!" he hissed to himself as he slammed the lid with his fist, and then flinched and quickly looked around when he realized how loud he was being. He didn't hear any commotion, so he relaxed a bit and focused back on the crate. He finally noticed a keypad with four buttons. Ajax hesitantly pushed them in a row from left to right and the crate beeped disagreeably. A screen glowed red with the phrase "4 attempts remaining." Ajax swallowed hard and his hands began to tremble. No one told him the crate had a code! How was he supposed to get in if he didn't know the code?

  
Ajax thought hard and hesitantly entered another pattern. The crate beeped and the counter went down to three attempts. He tried again and it failed. He tried another pattern, and then winced when he realized he only had one attempt left. "Think, Ajax, think!" he said as he pounded his head with his wrists. He racked his brain for any hints that Chief might have given him for the code and came up short with nothing. He moaned and dramatically draped himself over the crate, burying his face in his arms. Tears stung his eyes and his throat tightened. I just need the damn code! he thought to himself furiously. Why didn't Chief tell me the code? All he gave me was this stupid datastick! He yanked the datastick out of his pocket and scowled at it. He squeezed it his hand and raised his arm to throw it down the alley, then stopped himself when he felt a weird texture on the back of the stick.

  
Ajax brought the datastick down to eye level and turned it over in his hands. He wasn't sure how he never noticed before but there was a piece of tape stuck to the back. Scribbled on the tape were the numbers "4 2 1 3." Ajax squinted in confusion, then gasped when he realized what it was. He entered the pattern into the crate, and it clicked open. Ajax threw his hands in the air and opened his mouth in a silent victory cry. He flipped open the lid, not sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't a ladder. Ajax checked once more for storm troopers, and the carefully climbed into the crate and grabbed hold of the rungs. When he looked out into the street, he saw the outstretched shadows of storm troopers marching near. He gasped and grabbed the lid and carefully, and quietly closed it shut above him before the storm troopers could see. Then he slowly descended down the ladder.

  
The ladder was long, and Ajax's hands were starting to shake. When he finally reached the bottom, he was in a dark pit. Thankfully, he could see in the dark, but that didn't make him any less scared. He spotted an old lamp and hurried over to it, praying it still worked. Miraculously it did, and it cast a warm glow around the room. In the pit was a sleeping bag, some crates, and a long range communicator. He scampered over to the communicator and turned it on. The old thing hummed to life and Ajax waited impatiently for it to load up. When it finally did, all he heard was static. He shakily turned the dial as he searched for frequencies. He was told to go to frequency zero, which he thought was ridiculous since no one used that frequency anymore. Even so, he tuned in and waited. 

  
No ressponse came, so Ajax hesitantly pressed the button to open communications. "Hello?" he nervously asked. "Hello, is anyone there?" The room filled with static as Ajax waited for a response. He swallowed hard and tried again. "Hello, does anyone read me? This is Ajax, calling from Black Spire Outpost. Does anyone copy?" Ajax wrung his hands nervously and began to fuss about. Was it the right frequency? Was the communicator working properly? Did he even find the right crate? Ajax began to panic when the the communicator clicked.

  
"This is Wanderer 3 to Black Spire Outpost," a man's voice came through. "I hear you, Ajax. Nice to see you made it." Ajax seized up. He covered his mouth with his hands and stared at the communicator. He squeezed his eyes just to stop the tears but they rolled down his face anyway. He gulped and shakily reached out to respond.

  
"Thank you," was all Ajax managed to say.


End file.
